The invention relates to a gasdynamic CO laser comprising a gas supply means supplying a laser gas, an excitation region in which the gas is excited, a supersonic nozzle arranged downstream of the excitation region and having the laser gas flowing therethrough and a laser-active region penetrated by a resonator beam path.
A gasdynamic CO laser of this type is known from Applied Physics 22, pages 421-427 (1980). In this gasdynamic CO laser, the CO laser gas is excited in the excitation region by way of a glow discharge.
A glow discharge of this type is difficult to stabilize and requires, in addition, a cylindrical geometry of the exit region, whereby the laser gas flows through this cylindrical geometry along the cylindrical axis. On the other hand, a geometry of this type again requires the supersonic nozzle to be shaped in a manner which is not optimal with respect to the flow ratios.
The object underlying the invention is to improve a gasdynamic CO laser of the generic type such that it is possible to excite the laser gas in a more optimum manner.